Turkish Police Blame PKK For Bombings Near Syrian Border, Istanbul

Turkish police say a Kurdish rebel suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle outside a police headquarters near Turkey's border with Syria on June 8, killing five other people.

An Interior Ministry official said the victims included three civilians and two women police officers.

A total of 51 people, including 23 civilians, were wounded by the blast.

The attack in the town of Midyat, in Mardin Province, came amid a surge in violence in Turkey and a day after a car bomber hit a police vehicle in Istanbul, killing 11 people.

The Interior Ministry official said authorities had strong evidence indicating that the outlawed rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) had carried out the June 7 attack in Istanbul and the June 8 bombing in Mardin Province.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on June 7 signed a bill into law that lifts the parliamentary immunity of lawmakers -- a move that paves the wave for the prosecution of pro-Kurdish lawmakers that Erdogan accuses of being the political wing of the PKK.

Based on reporting by AP, Reuters, and AFP